Major expansion plans for Sheffield surplus food project

Jo Hercberg has announced major expansion of The Real Junk Food Project

Published:07:45Tuesday 20 November 2018

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A Sheffield social enterprise that stops surplus food from being junked has unveiled £50,000 expansion plans.

The Real Junk Food Project is launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a warehouse where it will preserve, store and cook food and feed people. It also plans to roll out education programmes.

Founder and director Jo Hercberg said ‘Food Works’ would have commercial refrigerators and kitchen facilities to turn ‘wasted food into valued food’. The team is looking to raise £50,000 from backers through crowdfunder.co.uk.

Jo added: “Food Works will transform the amount of perfectly good food going into bellies, not bins in Sheffield.

“We’ve already saved 319 tonnes in just three years and created hundreds of thousands of meals but this is only 0.1 per cent of food wasted in Sheffield. We need to do so much more.

“Food Works will give us a stable base to operate from and we’d expand our work to include farms, producers and wholesalers.

“We’d then be able to begin preserving, storing, cooking and feeding people with food the second it gets to the warehouse.”

The Real Junk Food Project already runs two pay-as-you-feel cafés, a pay-as-you-feel store, the Food Works for School programme and a caterers.

Staffed by volunteers it saves more than six tonnes of surplus food a week.

The crowdfunding campaign goes live at midday on Tuesday November 20 with rewards including Christmas hampers, refillable cups and private fine dining.